


Field Trip

by pigeonfeathers



Series: Knight At The Museum [6]
Category: Night at the Museum (Movies)
Genre: (or is it one sided? bella doesnt think so), M/M, i love bella i hope u do too!, nicky/lance is one sided as usual poor nicky
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-24
Updated: 2017-07-24
Packaged: 2018-12-06 11:57:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11600163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pigeonfeathers/pseuds/pigeonfeathers
Summary: Lance isn't going to miss out on a trip to see where Nicky and his sister live.Cue sibling teasing and a wonderfully oblivious Lance.Part of the Knight At The Museum series.





	Field Trip

**Author's Note:**

> Late this month, due to my birthday! Oops! Also, Lance's birthday because I gave them the same one as me lmao, they're definitely an emotional and enthusiastic cancer, I should know, they're basically a self insert at this point lol. Anyway, happy 24th-or-something-like-that to Lance!
> 
> Bella! She's here! I'm so pleased that people consider my OCs as interesting as the canon characters, and I hope you like her too. Wonderful artistic feminist bi black girl, everyone's fave for sure. 
> 
> I realllyyy wanted to explore Nicky and his hobbies and interests and just Him and also Bella so exploring their shared living space seemed like a good idea! Lance definitely enjoyed getting poke around, at least, haha. This is set in February 2017, btw!
> 
> Enjoy friends!
> 
> And I hope you're looking forward to the next fic... it's going to be the second to last one of this main series :0  
> (I'm hoping to add on some more extras afterwards, too!)

They probably looked pretty shifty, sneaking around outside in the dark.

Okay, they definitely looked dodgy.

It wasn’t as bad as it seemed; Nicky was just going to his own apartment. However, it was two in the morning and he had an excitable knight in tow, plus Bella was likely asleep, so he was being very quiet about the whole thing, trying not to get the attention of the nosy neighbour at number twenty-four.

Bella had come to the museum a handful of times, although she’d surprised Nicky by not begging to visit it as much as possible. She’d been blown away seeing everything alive, but she had told him how it felt like his thing and she didn’t want to intrude on it. She’d talked to the people she was interested in, lamented missing Shakespeare’s visit when she’d been on a trip with her theatre group at the time, and made sure that everyone knew the words to at least three Beyoncé songs. After that, she said she felt like her job was done. 

She was around people dressed as historical figures and characters quite often, which was likely why it hadn’t been so impressive. Also, his mom had probably talked about how obsessive and emotionally attached his dad had gotten and she was clever enough to not go down the same path. Unlike him. Nicky had said that he didn’t understand how she couldn’t want to be there every single night. Bella had replied that they didn’t all have someone special keeping them there. He’d brushed off that comment at the time, but later realised how perceptive his sister was. 

Also, he had kinda been talking about Lance a lot. 

Luckily, she’d promised not to mention anything to them or interfere ‘too much’. Nicky was still putting off doing something about his fully realised crush, and he didn’t want Bella trying to set them up - he had enough to deal with with Tilly trying to get him to go on dates with people. 

Man, he really needed to organise for his sister and Tilly to hang out again sometime, they had a lot in common.

Nicky was struggling to find the lock on the front door in the semi-darkness, and had begun jabbing the key in the general area, hoping it’d slot in at some point. He was trying to ignore how it felt similar to coming back wasted from a party with even worse coordination than usual, even though he was sober. He grumbled to himself, and Lance started pulling Nicky’s phone from his hoodie pocket as a makeshift light, however they dropped it back inside as the door was opened, light pouring out to meet them.

“What time do you call this?”

Bella was frowning at the two of them from the doorway, arms crossed, and Nicky found himself once again annoyed (not too seriously) that she was a theatre person as sometimes it was really hard to tell if she was acting or not. Okay, now this definitely reminded him of coming home late, like that time he’d returned from a party he’d forgotten to tell either of his moms about and they’d looked both concerned and unhappy with him. 

He’d had to text them about his whereabouts every day for a week after that, embarrassingly having to pause in conversation with friends to text them both about what he was up to. He was very good at remembering to keep in touch with his moms since that day.

Nicky caught the amusement in Bella’s eyes and grinned, shoved his key in his pocket, and sloped inside. “I could ask you the same question. I thought you were super keen to finish that essay and sleep early and everything?”

“Hello, Bella!” Lance was smiling as they followed after Nicky, eager to get inside and explore the flat. They’d not really been to many places outside of the museum, and even though Nicky had assured them it was pretty boring, they were still interested in seeing inside.

Bella closed the door behind them, bumping Lance’s outstretched fist with her own, as had become their greeting after a conversation about their shared love of _Big Hero Six_. “Hey, Lance.” She followed Nicky further into the living room as Lance stopped to investigate a collection of photo frames on a shelf near the door that belonged to Bella, luckily containing no embarrassing photos of Nicky when he was younger like on their shelves at home. Nicky noted that his sister had her curly hair tied up in buns and was wearing her pyjamas, so she must have been planning to go to bed at some point.

“Honestly, I was going to finish my work, but then I needed a snack, and then I checked what was on TV… and _then_ I got stuck in a _Friends_ loop and ate an entire shareable packet of maltesers. I swear, those things are never shared.”

Nicky laughed, looking over at the television to see that she had indeed been watching _Friends_. _‘Indeed’_. Man, he could’ve sworn he never used that word before being around Lance. 

“I didn’t think you were a fan of the show?”

Bella gestured with her arms widely, exasperated. Across the room, Lance whirled around at the movement. Nicky wondered how he’d ended up surrounded by the most dramatic people on the planet.

“I’m not! I never even cared about these boring white people doing their boring 90s things! But then there was a wedding and it was a three part thing and I couldn’t escape.” She reached over and clutched the front of Nicky’s hoodie. “Save me from my peril, Nicky!”

Honest to G-d, he rolled his eyes. “Okay, what about this?” He reached over to the sofa and found the remote, switching off the TV. “Done.”

Bella gave him a hug before ending her dramatics and flopping down on the sofa. “You’re stronger than I am. I couldn’t stop watching the comedic happenings of the Friends. I think it’s because Ross reminds me of you.”

Nicky had been stretching his arm out to tug on the sleeve of Lance’s t-shirt in the hope of getting them to join him over by the TV, but when he heard that comment he pulled a face and looked back over at his sister. “Ross? He’s the worst one!”

Bella popped a stray malteser into her mouth. “Dinosaurs,” She pointed out.

Nicky pursed his lips in thought. “Fair enough.” He sat on the arm of the sofa, watching Lance as they looked at practically every item in the room with great interest. He smiled when they held up the electric chanukiah he’d still not bothered to put away and grinned in recognition, placing it back under the windowsill gently.

“Meanwhile,” Bella continued, fishing out another malteser from between the sofa cushions and dusting it off before eating it. The two of them really didn’t help each other with their shit eating habits. “I’m Phoebe. Unique, artsy, intuitive,” She counted out on her fingers.

“Yeah, you’ve got her musical skills too,” Nicky tapped at his phone and then showed her a clip of the character in question singing and playing the guitar pretty poorly. Bella actually had a great singing voice, but they wouldn’t be siblings if they didn’t tease each other at every given opportunity.

“Hey!” Bella huffed in indignation and pushed him off the armrest. Lance rushed over to catch him before he fell on his ass, and then there was an awkward moment where Nicky tried to clamber out of their arms as fast as possible and Lance wasn’t letting go until they were sure he was okay. After a couple minutes stranded in their arms, he seated himself back on the side of the sofa and tried to act like that random heroic gesture hadn’t happened at all and that it didn’t happen whenever Nicky was about to fall over. Lance walked a short distance away to inspect a cluster of cacti plants.

Bella was smiling slyly at the two of them, and Nicky turned away from Lance and mouthed at her to shut up. She just smiled wider, looking so annoyingly smug and entertained, but started talking again as a distraction. 

“How did you know how to find that clip, anyway?” She pointed at his phone, lying forgotten on a sofa cushion. He picked it up and pretended to be scrolling through his Facebook feed as he waited for his heart rate to slow down a few notches. Damn Lance and their strong arms and those arms being around him. Bella’s smile hadn’t disappeared in the slightest. 

This trip to the flat had been a terrible idea, Nicky decided, indulging in his own dramatics just a little with that thought.

“Mom watched it all the time, so I ended up knowing all about it whether I wanted to or not. Dad never watched it though… wait. Wait.” Nicky covered his mouth as he started laughing. “My dad is Ross. I just realised. I hate this.”

Lance looked over, raising an eyebrow. “I thought you said Ross was the worst?”

“He’s also a Jewish, dinosaur loving divorcee,” Nicky pointed out, eyebrows raised and amused smile still on his face, and he’d ended up watching the show with Lance enough times to know that the other would see it too. 

He was right; Lance burst out laughing, nodding in agreement. 

“I’m so going to text him about this,” Bella said casually, looking around for her phone.

“No, you’re not,” 

“You really should.”

“Lance!”

“It’d be funny!”

Bella grinned at the two of them before snatching up her phone from a table in the corner of the living room before sitting back down, crossing her legs and smiling confidently.

“You don’t even have his number,” Nicky realised, relaxing.

“No, I don’t,” Bella agreed. Nicky could sense a ‘but’ coming. “But, he did add me on Facebook so I could let him know that you were okay, he says you never text him back.”

Nicky groaned, sliding off the armrest onto the sofa beside her. Lance started walking closer to his room and he was suddenly aware of the piles of books and clothes and who knows what else scattered around his carpet. Luckily, Lance moved past the bedroom door, turning to inspect some rainbow regalia that Bella had left near the TV from a recent pride event, smiling to themself, before wandering off. “He’s so embarrassing.”

“You’re in a different country, Nick, he is gonna want to keep in touch,”

“Yeah, but, he sends loads of chain messages,” He got his phone out from his pocket again to show her the evidence. “Send this to ten close friends to let them know how much they mean to you, or cannibals will eat you in your sleep,” He read out, shaking his head. “I don’t have a clue where he finds these things.”

Bella was laughing softly, patting his shoulder in consolation. “Bless him. Hey, why are you even here, anyway? I know you live here too, but…it’s museum hours, you never usually leave the place,” She raised her eyebrows, looking honestly shocked that he was back so early.

Nicky started to tell her that he’d left Trixie’s new toy behind, and really needed it to keep her occupied at the museum, and then the whole thing had turned into a bit of a field trip, but he was stopped halfway through by a triumphant ‘Aha!’ coming from the kitchen.

Lance emerged with a fluffy cat in their arms, walking over to join the other two. “You never told me you had a cat!” They sat on the floor by the sofa, the cat seeming content to flop over and lie on their lap as they stroked it.

“She’s not my cat,” Nicky told them.

“She’s mine! Isn’t she beautiful?” Bella and Lance shared a grin. Nicky liked the cat sure enough, but he had always been a dog person at heart, and Bella’s cat was too lazy to play games and instead preferred to lie on your lap or head whenever possible, so he didn’t really have much to talk about when it came to her. He'd help feed the house cat and talk to her instead of talking to himself, but he wasn't as obsessed as Bella, who even had an instagram account dedicated to her cat.

“She’s a rescue, she’s pretty old now - she's only got one eye and she's quite deaf - but she's so sweet natured and friendly, and as soon as I found out that they allowed pets here, I was like ‘okay, I’m definitely not missing this opportunity’.” Bella told Lance, reaching down to scratch the cat under her chin. Nicky slid further down the sofa and rested his phone on his belly, this time actually looking at his Facebook. He caught Lance pulling a face at him for his disinterest, and Nicky stuck his tongue out in return, smiling as he returned to his phone screen. 

“We call her Des, but her full name is ‘A Streetcat Named Desire’. I made them write that on all the papers and everything.” Lance smiled, but clearly didn’t understand why Bella was so happy about that name. “You see, there’s this movie called _‘A Streetcar Named Desire’_ , about some car that’s really great or something, I’ve never actually watched it,”

“Oh, and she’s a street cat! That’s great!” Lance finished, nodding happily in understanding, jostling Des a little with their enthusiastic moving around. She merely stretched out more on their thighs, enjoying all the attention.

“Nicky never appreciates my great taste in puns,” Bella told them, sighing.

“He has no taste.” Lance replied solemnly, patting her on the knee.

Nicky rolled his eyes good naturedly as the two of them laughed, putting his phone away and standing up. “I’m glad you guys are having some quality time with the cat, but we do kinda need to get this giant chewy thing back to the museum before that dinosaur finds something else instead,”

“There was an incident with my slippers,” Lance told Bella, not making any move to shift the cat from their legs. Des looked like she’d fallen asleep. Lance looked entirely unconcerned about that, and remained petting her with one hand as they gesticulated with the other. “Trixie liked them too much.”

Bella looked down at the new pair of fluffy boots that Lance was wearing. Nicky had learnt that at two in the morning, nobody cared about what you wore on your feet, and even if they had, Lance didn’t actually have any other footwear that wasn’t part of a heavy metal armour. 

“I don’t know how I’d manage with a dinosaur for a pet. You must get on really well with her.”

Lance beamed at Bella’s compliment. “Well, she is more like a companion than a pet, she often does her own thing, but she does, mostly, listen to me.” They slowly lifted Des from their legs, who blinked and promptly lay down on the carpet next to them instead. “I don’t want her eating any more of my footwear, though; Nicky gets really annoyed about my cold feet,”

They got up and went over to the two bedroom doors, pausing for a second before choosing the one with a Yoda decoration hanging off the doorknob over the one which had a room sign hung up with the words ‘Diva and Proud!’ and an image of Miss Piggy (a gift from Maya). Nicky knew before he even met her eyes that Bella would be shooting him _a look_. She was.

“Shut up.” He muttered, seeing the amusement in her eyes yet again as she got up and sidled over to him.

“You don’t like his cold feet when you snuggle together on the couch?” Bella questioned, smiling innocently at him.

Nicky realised that was exactly the situation, minus the snuggling, although the two of them wrapping up in blankets and resting their legs on each other was pretty close. “I just... “ Nicky groaned. “It’s honestly not like that. Not like whatever you’re thinking. Shush.” He waved a hand at her to stop and hurried after Lance into his bedroom (that sounded just as bad as the cold feet thing, shit, this needed to stop happening).

“I’d give you some alone time, but this is more entertaining than any old 90s shows,” Bella commented, swinging her arms as she strolled after him into his room.

Lance seemed to have headed straight to the office chair by his desk, if the fact that it was still spinning around a little by itself was anything to go by. They mustn't have been interested in anything on the desk though (a big mess, if Nicky was honest; he'd only used it for his laptop once as he’d stuck to his bad habit of having it on his lap instead of sat at a proper desk) - they had since moved to look at a shelf of figurines of various characters. 

They didn't seem bothered by any of the mess of clothes on the floor, which was good, not that Nicky had expected them to judge, it was just… well, he kinda wanted to make a good impression. Even though they'd already known each other for about three years. It was ridiculous, he knew it. He started poking around the stuff on his floor in search of Trixie’s jumbo chew toy. It shouldn't have been hard to find, but for some reason he'd always been terrible at looking for lost things.

“Nicky, no offence, but these ones are really ugly,” Lance held up a couple Pop Vinyl figures and pulled a face at them. Bella agreed with them loudly, sitting down cross-legged on his bed.

“They’re not that bad,” Nicky defended, noting happily that Lance was very careful about putting them back. Actually, considering how clumsy and distracted both of them could be, it was a surprise neither of them had knocked over anything in the cramped flat. 

Bella patted the space on the bed next to her for Lance to join her, having absolutely no problem with getting comfortable in his room and inviting Lance to do the same. It was both embarrassing and a bit exciting to have Lance in his personal space. Nicky wasn’t going to say anything about it, at least not with Bella around, but it was kind of a special thing inviting them round and letting them see where he spent the rest of his time outside of the museum. A bit like inviting a date home for the first time, except not. He shouldn’t have compared it to that, now he couldn't get that idea out of his head. Oops.

“I’m gonna get some of my work, too,” Nicky said to nobody in particular after locating the wouldbe dinosaur toy. He had almost finished his film and TV course and just had some more things to read up on and add to his presentation. He was more motivated at the museum when he had a goal of fun things to do with people when he finished, otherwise he’d sit on his bed trying to motivate himself to do work with the promise of a snack. He often didn't even bother having the snack, if he was honest. The joys of being a depressed gap year student.

 

“Okay, that one is definitely worse,” Lance said, and Nicky looked up from sorting out printouts from his course to see Bella was showing them images of different Pop Vinyl figures. Nicky agreed - the Dory one was the stuff of nightmares. He’d been thinking of buying it for Bella as a way of showing her that his weren’t the worst that could be in their flat.

Nicky kicked some DVDs underneath his bed with his foot as he made his way around the room. He couldn't help doing a bit of tidying up; he’d never had a visitor over for the whole time he’d been in the U.K. and now that he did, well, he was feeling self conscious as he saw Lance’s gaze move around the room. He reminded himself once again that Lance wouldn’t care, thinking about how they left a trail of mess behind them in the museum most nights.

“Your pronouns are still they and them, right?” Bella was asking, and Lance told her they were. “Well, if I ever mess up, tell me off, okay?” Lance laughed at that. Nicky stuffed his work into a backpack with a smile, knowing Lance would be happy to have been asked. His sister was pretty cool, not that he’d give her the satisfaction of telling her aloud.

“Okay, got everything,” Nicky told the other two, slinging his backpack over his shoulder and looking up. The other two were now both barefoot (nothing new for Bella, Nicky teased her for being a hippie with her hatred of anything but sandals on her feet; if London was cleaner he bet that she'd happily travel barefoot all the time), and his sister was braiding Lance’s hair. Neither of them made any move to leave his room.

Nicky picked up the giant bone for Trixie and poked Lance in the side with it. 

Lance turned around, shark plush in hand as their weapon of choice. They batted Nicky on the head with it, then turned the shark this way and that to check that no damage had been done to it.

“I’m fine too, thanks for checking,” Nicky teased; both of them knowing that Lance could hardly do much damage with a cuddly toy.

“l love this shark.” Was Lance’s response. Bella, still sat comfortably next to them, had started trying to create a tower out of stray items from Nicky’s bedside table. “You have so many cool things in your room,” Lance continued, smiling warmly at Nicky. “Do you have more figures and things back in America too?”  
Nicky found himself feeling… really warm inside at how much interest and care Lance had for the things in his room that were actually just pretty useless. It was nice how Lance noticed all of his little collections. 

He admired how the other was so easily enraptured with even the smallest things, failing to get bored in his room and instead acting like it was a treasure trove. Well, to someone who’d never been into a modern bedroom before, it probably was. But Nicky also was pretty sure their interest was because it was Nicky and they were interested in what he was interested in, which only served to make him smile even more bashfully and forget he was supposed to give his friend a response.

Lance had moved on anyway, cosy slippers back on their feet as they stood by another shelf in the room with Bella, who was telling them the scents of each different homemade candle while they picked them up and smelt them all.

“I usually just make them for gifts occasionally, but I’ve had to give Nicky a lot because his room smells so bad,” Bella was saying, shooting her brother a very not-innocent smile as she pushed some stray clothes aside with her toes to make a point. “Never does his washing.” She added, sighing to herself in a long-suffering kind of way.

“Nicky’s clothes never smell bad to me,” Lance was musing, turning around the candles on the shelf to neaten them up again. Bella gave Nicky a smug look which he pretend he hadn’t seen.

Nicky started heading out of the door, watching Lance have a last long look around the room as they headed after him. Their gaze move from the glow in the dark planets and stars stuck on the wall, to the pile of books on the floor by his bed - he found it easier to read a few at once rather than stick to one with his terrible attention span. Lance said goodbye to the stuffed shark before walking past Nicky out of the room, and Bella followed, patting her brother on the arm and mouthing “they’re a keeper” with a wink.

“Ooh, I haven’t seen the bathroom yet!” Lance announced, before taking a detour from the route to the front door and going into the bathroom. Nicky supposed it was more interesting than most people’s: in it’s current state it was half a shower and toilet room, half a blackout room for developing photographs (one of Bella’s many hobbies).

Nicky found himself zoning out as he watched Bella and Lance chatting in the bathroom; his sister pointing to photos hung up on a washing line from the shower curtain, Lance trying to figure out how the electronic weighing scales worked. They got on great and Nicky tried not to think of the whole bringing the crush home to meet the family thing that kept floating around his head. 

The two emerged from the bathroom, both smelling like some mango body spray that Bella loved. Lance pointed over at a vase of wildflowers on a table nearby and Bella told them about how she was trying to learn foraging but it was hard remembering which berries and things were okay to touch. Nicky thought about how, whether he was in the flat or at the museum, he was surrounded by interesting people. He hoped he was somewhat as interesting as them, but he wasn’t sure.

“Cherries are great, but you mustn't eat any broken pits, they can be poisonous,” Lance was saying, and both Nicky and Bella looked surprised by the random knowledge. “I… don’t really know how I know that. I remember collecting red currants and wild cherries,” They continued, scratching their arm below their elbow in what Nicky knew to be a self conscious gesture.

“You know what?” Bella announced, taking the attention off a thankful Lance. They looked like they might be about to dissociate, so Nicky walked over and squeezed their shoulder. 

“Pub quizzes! You’d be so great at those, knowing facts like you do.” Bella was nodding enthusiastically and Lance was grinning back, looking bright eyed and comfortable again, thankfully. All of them knew that it wasn’t so easy for a knight to go on a night out with a group of university students and not stand out in some way, but it was a nice idea, and Nicky thought of organising a quiz at the museum. There hadn’t been a quiz night in a while, and the last time it had just been a group of people doing _Buzzfeed_ quizzes to find out which Disney characters they were, so a general knowledge theme could be more interesting.

“Yeah, we have them at a bar on campus,” Bella continued, easily taking control of the conversation. “I wanted our team name to be ‘Agatha Quiztie’, but someone else took that! So unfair. But now we’re ‘Quizteam-a Aguilera’, which is still cool. We’ve come second a few times, but we’re gonna win one of these days,” Nicky had been a few times - Bella’s friends were as loud and fun as her, and saw him as another person to hang out with instead of a younger brother tagging along, which was nice. Unfortunately, when it came to answering questions, he was only really good at movies and random history knowledge, but it was hard when you found yourself forgetting which things were from history books and which things the people had told you personally.

Bella continued chatting, keeping Lance’s attention off their own thoughts, and Nicky found himself happy just listening to the two people he was closest to interacting and getting on. He wasn’t exactly shy or quiet, but he did enjoy people watching: listening to conversations and learning things. It was like a social experiment or _Sims_ game, or that one _Adventure Time_ episode with the tiny people. It was something he often found himself doing at the museum, listening to the conversations around him and thinking about the random things people talked about. Lance was talking about MBTI types and personality quizzes, Bella responding enthusiastically as she stood beside them. 

Thinking about the museum, though, it would be a good idea to head back.

Nicky shifted the backpack on his shoulder, poking his sister in the arm to get her attention. She poked him back in the ribs with a laugh. “Anyway, we should be getting back,” Lance nodded over at him in agreement.

“Well, it was nice of you to visit little ol’ me,” Bella replied, patting them both on their shoulders and pulling them into a sort-of group hug before they all walked towards the front door. “What are your plans for tonight? Aside from restraining that pet dinosaur of yours.”

Nicky shrugged. “I think the vikings wanted to do some hackey sack tournament. You know, the usual.” 

Bella laughed at that, shaking her head a little. “As long as you don't try on that chainmail again. I know you're super buff and strong,” She paused to flex her arms, which probably had more muscle to them than Nicky’s. “But you complained about your back for ages last time, I don't want my little brother breaking something.” She pushed him teasingly, and he pushed back, and then that started a bit of a war as they tried to topple each other over.

“You can find another way to impress people,” Bella told him with a knowing smile as she almost pushed him off balance, and he was grateful for Lance’s interruption. 

“We’re also going to watch _Despicable Me_ , to see if it's any good,”

Lance blinked in surprise when Bella burst out laughing at that, the three of them halting their journey as they reached the front door.

“Again, Nicky?” Bella turned on him, arms folded and eyebrow raised. “This is the third time you've made someone watch it with you. I’m starting to think you aren't doing it ironically any more.”

“Pfft.” Nicky waved his hand at her dismissively. “The soundtrack is good, okay?”

“Can't believe you're subjecting me to an hour of those yellow monsters,” Lance muttered.

“Also, it's gonna be fun watching Lance get all grumpy about minions.”

“Hey!” Lance frowned at Nicky, but it only took a few seconds before it was replaced with a smile. “Oh! I forgot to say goodbye to Des!” Nicky felt like giving them a hug after seeing their expression become desolate at their realisation.

“She’ll be on my bed getting fur everywhere, go say goodbye to her, she’s gonna miss you,” Bella said, and Lance hurried back inside.

“Lance!” Nicky called out after them, suddenly remembering something. “I got some of those party rings for you, they’re near the toaster, get them on your way back, yeah?” He heard a happy sound of assent from inside and smiled as he turned back towards the doorway.

Bella grabbed onto Nicky’s hoodie as he turned to step outside, holding him back for a moment. “ Enjoy your movie date, bro,”

Nicky fended her off with Trixie's bone. “It’s not--! Nevermind. Shut up. It's not like it's a romantic movie.”

“Doesn't have to be one to make it a romantic event.”

“But it's not gonna be, so, shh.”

“I’m telling you, it's not unrequited. I could always visit and ask them about you…”

Nicky blanched at that, shaking his head. “No, I shouldn't have to get someone else to ask for me. I’ll talk to them about it soon, okay? Quit bullying me.” He whined, not all that serious, although he wasn't keen on all the attention on his crush.

“I'm only teasing you, Nick. But… also not, because you two are getting together someday.” Bella nodded firmly, as though she was going to personally see to it that it happened. “Just like me and Lucy Liu,” She sighed dreamily.

Nicky just rolled his eyes, deciding against commenting on that as Lance rejoined them, stepping out of the doorway after him. They had fur on their shirt and had already opened the packet of biscuits, offering them to the other two. Nicky took one with a thanks, realising that he hadn’t eaten anything for a good six hours, then double checked his bag for the worksheets he wanted to get done that night.

“I love your cat, Bella.”

“I bet she likes you too, she loves anyone who will let her lie all over them.”

“Ahk, at the museum, wants a cat.” Lance sighed somewhat wistfully at the idea of a museum pet.

Nicky looked up at that. “A hairless one,” He pointed out, pulling a face.

“Those are so cute!” Bella pulled a face back at him, arms crossed indignantly.

“I’m glad you agree.” Lance looked very smug. Nicky pulled a face at them too, and they just smiled, looking content. It really shouldn’t have made Nicky’s stomach flip the way it did, but unfortunately he didn’t have much control over that.

“You honestly are welcome back any time.” Bella told Lance, and Nicky caught her giving their arm a quick squeeze. Likely also checking to see if they were as buff as Nicky may have mentioned… a few times. “Nicky said you were different from the others and you are, hey, don't look worried! I mean that you're not stuck in the past, you know? You're real open minded and you know stuff about tv shows, it's really great.”

“That means a lot, thank you. You’re super interesting, too!”

“You’re sweet, Lance. You know, you’ve picked up some of Nicky’s speech patterns? It’s funny, he does the same too. I can tell you two spend a lot of time around each other.” 

If she said one more cryptic thing, Nicky swore to himself that he'd stop sending her gifts on the dragon app she was obsessed with.

“I should get back to actually going to bed.” Bella pointed out. “You two should get back to your dinosaur.”

“Lance’s dinosaur,” Nicky murmured, noticing how Bella was trying to pair them up again. They did both look after Trixie and play with her, and they were the two people she listened to most but… anyway, she wasn’t even a pet really, she was her own, uh, dinosaur. The museum’s property, if anything. He knew in all honesty that it wasn’t hard to make the two of them sound domestic, but friendship was different when you were always in the place one of you lived in. 

Bella reached up to give Lance a big hug, ignoring her brother’s correction. She turned towards Nicky afterwards, arms outstretched impatiently. He expected her to make another reference or teasing comment when they hugged, but instead she just patted his back and then ruffled his hair with a chuckle.

“It’s nice seeing you both out and about,” She told them, leaning against the doorframe like she had when they’d first arrived. “Nicky, it’s great having you bring someone ‘round for once.”

“I’m not _that _lonely, Bella,” He rolled his eyes, knowing full well that, outside of the museum, he actually was a bit deprived of friends. Well, friends that he didn’t talk to online or who weren't back home in America.__

__“I’m just proud of you both.” She said with a firm nod, and she did look proud. “Now, take care, and tell Tilly I said hi,”_ _

__“We will!” Lance told her, sounding very enthusiastic about that. Nicky was sure that they were probably thinking of whether they could set up Tilly and Bella, they’d been quite keen about matchmaking with Tilly after she'd said she was looking to date._ _

__“You take care too, I’ll see you tomorrow, well, later today.” Nicky responded, and they both waved as they walked back down the corridor. Lance was crunching on a biscuit loudly beside him, still smelling like his sister’s fruity body mist._ _

__After hearing an outsider’s view on their friendship, Nicky thought a little bit more about whether Lance could maybe, possibly like him too? He still didn’t want to get any hopes up about that idea… but it had been pointed out to him how close they were, how well they understood each other, and he started thinking about telling the other about his feelings soon. They got on so comfortably, it probably wouldn’t make things as awkward as he kept worrying. Whatever the outcome, it’d probably not make much difference, maybe if they got together, it would be the same, but better..._ _

__Lance was right next to him, talking about Bella’s paintings on the canvas in her room; he decided he really needed to think that all over some other time. Instead, he thought about Trixie, waiting for the return of her favourite person, Lance. He thought about his sister, how she’d probably put off sleep for another half hour or so with some painting or needlework or some other activity. He thought about Lance, how enthralled he’d been with each and every thing in Nicky’s room, no matter how mundane. He smiled to himself as he snacked on another biscuit. He’d put off thinking about the most prominent relationship in his life for a while and focus on setting up Bella and Tilly. The two of them were confident enough that they could laugh about it and enjoy it, so he'd probably not be able to embarrass his sister the same way she could with him, but at least he'd have a chance for some payback._ _

__He caught Lance scratching their arm again, and worried about seeing the anxious gesture… until he noticed raised, red bumps along Lance’s arms._ _

__“Dude, you've got a rash,” He pointed out, physically pointing at the hives on their arms. Nicky was too surprised to phrase it more gently, and Lance freaked out a bit, waving their arms in front of them._ _

__“What happened? Am I allergic to these biscuits?” Lance moaned sadly. “No… anything but the Party Rings… these are my favourites…”_ _

__“Oh, wait,” Nicky patted them on the arm to get their attention. They'd already stopped walking, but Lance was busy turning their arms this way and that to study the damage. “I think you're… okay, don't get upset, but I think you're allergic to cats.”_ _

__Lance cried out sadly again, their whole body drooping. “Life is too unfair.” They lamented, scratching the inside of their elbow before stopping themself with an annoyed noise._ _

__Nicky started brushing as much fur off their shirt as he could. “Well, it could be a worse allergic reaction.” Nicky hadn't even considered whether the folks at the museum could have allergies, he'd never seen it happen before, but it looked like it was possible. Poor Lance. They were looking very sorry for themself, rubbing the inside of their arms against their clothes, blond hair falling over their face as they hung their head._ _

__“C’mon, lets go back to Bella and get an antihistamine or something,” Nicky wrapped an arm around Lance’s waist and lead them back down the hallway. “You can still pet cats, you're just gonna have to take anti allergy tablets before you do.” Nicky made a mental note to himself to bring some to the museum from now on._ _

__“Cruel fate, cruel fate…” Lance was muttering, and even they would admit they were being dramatic on purpose. They were leaning against Nicky a bit heavily, but he wasn't going to ask them to move away. Because he wanted to comfort them, of course, nothing to do with enjoying their warm weight by his side. Okay, maybe a little bit._ _

__“We’re gonna go back to the museum and watch a movie after this, things are gonna be fun,” Nicky patted them on the back, trying to cheer them up. He supposed it must be a bit of a blow to have your first trip out meeting a cat only to find they give you a rash._ _

__Lance did not look any happier at that reminder. “Minions.” They looked down with a deep frown. Nicky tried very hard not to laugh at their reaction._ _

__“Lance, we’ll watch something else. Your choice.”_ _

__The other instantly brightened at that, straightening up and smiling. “We’ll watch Paul, then.” They replied, without even a moment's consideration. The sci fi comedy was one of their favourites, and Nicky thought about how much they laughed during it. He found himself smiling too._ _

__“Alright, foul mouthed alien movie it is. You feelin’ better, now?”_ _

__Lance nodded, then, without any warning, picked up Nicky and hoisted him on their back in a piggyback and started hurrying down towards the flat._ _

__“LANCE!”_ _

__“Nicky! We should hurry up so we can get back to Trixie, and the movie!” There was laughter in Lance’s voice._ _

__Nicky couldn't disagree with their logic, but as they stopped outside his front door for the second time that night, he knew his sister was going to have a field day with this._ _

__Well, whatever. It was worth it to see Lance cheered up and smiling again, despite the rash on the arms that were holding him tight. He knew that he'd probably not get put down until they'd reached the museum. He rested his arms around Lance’s neck. He wasn't exactly complaining._ _

__Whether it was at home with his sister or hanging out at the museum or somewhere in between, life was definitely never boring. Even though his museum family and his related family could be embarrassing, he honestly wouldn't have changed any of them for anything. Not even for the world's most comfortable binder, and that was saying something. Things were perfectly imperfect, weirdly normal, and often scientifically improbable in the best of ways, and he was starting to realise that not even the complication of feelings for his best friend would change that._ _

**Author's Note:**

> Wow, 6k words? I didn't think it had gotten that long, wow! For a series about a guy and a gendervague person, I'm definitely managing to put in as many ladies as possible too, haha.
> 
> Bella is the part of me that is yelling at myself for this slow burn, lmao. I love her a lot, I based her on my favourite character from my favourite book (Bee from Broken Soup by Jenny Valentine, for anyone interested!). 
> 
> Can we get an uhhhhhhhh resolved romantic tension fic? Well... you'll see soon enough ;)


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